Strained Ties
by Celestra
Summary: When Matt and TK's parents try to become family again for the sake of the brothers, Matt and TK are put in several awkward situations. Finally, a fatal situation not yet resolved comes of the fighting and puts them both into lethal danger. Brotherly love!


Strained Ties

Celestra (Les)

Author Notes: Hi. Welcome to the Inner Realm! Actually, ignore that comment. So, this is the prologue to a new fic I'm writing. (Well, duh.) I hope you like the prologue enough to read more! ^^ Anyways, here's the prologue, please enjoy, and if I could trouble you to leave an itty-bitty review to tell me what you like about it and what you want to see added! -.

Disclaimer: Ya know, I really dislike disclaimers . . . Anyways. If I owned digimon, the 02 ending would be different, Sora would have more personality (to go with the red hair ^^) and my personal character would be dating Matt. So I guess you can see I don't own Digimon. Toei and Bandai do. However, I _do_ own this story. No one may touch my story without my permission, and if they do so, prepare to be eternally damned! (That's my catchphrase by the way, don't steal that either! ^^)

Prologue

Have you ever wondered why some stars are grouped together and others aren't? Scientists are probably wondering right now why stars are laid out the way they are. They might have fancy scientific reasons that don't make a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things, or they might not even begin to try to understand, thinking it too complex. And me? I think there's a reason for everything, even something like this, because it doesn't enter the mind right away.

I think that there's a star for every person. The stars that are grouped together are families, mostly the families that stay together. And the stars that are far apart, they belong to the poor people that have no family, or lost it long ago. It makes me sad to think that such a simple thing – a star farther away than another – can mean another's sadness.

That's why stars fade away and die sometimes. But no, the star wouldn't die when the person does, or the sky would never stay the same. A star is only truly gone when the memory of the person is gone. That's why it's so sad for the stars way out there – they fade the fastest, because they have less people to remember them. But in some cases, that's good. Some stars might be around forever, as long as we care to remember the person behind it.

And that's why new stars appear too. That's when a baby is born – a new person to remember and cherish until they are long gone. And it might take longer for us to see their star – but that doesn't mean they're not there.

If you were to look outside right now, you would see a family of stars. At first glance, they seem to be four stars, but if you care to look longer, you would see other stars sprinkled close by, all part of the same family. But right now, just pay attention to these four stars. If you squint your eyes, you can see that the outer two stars seem to be trying to strain away, even attempting to take the middle stars with them.

These middle stars are the children of the family. You can see on how they seem to shine a little brighter than the rest the other two. If you squint again, you will see how these children-of-the-stars don't want to leave each other, seeming to grasp each other so as not to be taken away from each other by their parents, the other stars.

This family is the Ishida family. Or, it would be, if the star on the right weren't straining to escape the other star so strongly. This star once used to be an Ishida, but reverted back to her maiden name – Takaishi. So you see, this family is breaking up. Or trying to break up, except that the Brothers Ishida and Takaishi wish to remain each other.

Isn't it extraordinary how you can tell someone's life story by simply knowing where to look in the sky?

Even more miraculous, is that a very member of this family is watching this very group of stars this very minute.

Matt Ishida's blue-grey eyes were fixed upon the stars, scrutinizing to see if he could see even the tiniest movement. After living in the Digital World seven months ago, the constellations were once again different. Normally, Matt didn't usually watch the stars. He did, however, watch the moon. He adored looking at the moon, wondering what gave it its pale sheen after the rain, taking pleasure in the fact that it never hurt his eyes to look directly at it like the sun, and why it had such a pleasing mellow color.

Matt's affinity with the moon had given him the nickname of _Japanese Wolf_, seeing as wolves were always attracted to the moon. Matt thought this was ironic, in a way. His Digimon partner, Gabumon, had several wolf forms.

There was no moon tonight. Matt had been slightly disappointed when he had first come to the window to find no pale celestial sphere staring back at him. But nonetheless, he felt compelled to stare out at the stars, a certain group of stars as it happened.

Matt missed sleeping under the moon. The first few nights he had wanted to sleep outside like he had done nearly the whole time he was in the Digital World. But sleeping outside in the Real World was a different affair than sleeping in the DigiWorld. Granted, it was dangerous there too, but there, people of his own kind would not harm him.

More than sleeping outside, Matt missed sleeping with the other Digidestined close by. He had grown accustomed to their nighttime noises. Mimi and her wishful dreaming, Joe complaining in his sleep, Tai and Agumon's nightly toilet trips, Izzy sitting a bit further away from the group with a glowing computer screen and a soft 'prodigious' emanating every few minutes, how Kari and all the digimon slept together in their own little group, and how Sora got up sometimes to go think. And most of all, Matt missed his little brother TK.

He missed how TK always cuddled up next to him and fell asleep there. He missed how TK always sat with wide, impressed eyes whenever Matt played the harmonica for him. He missed TK's soft breathing as he nestled in sleep at Matt's side. He even missed TK's scent – a warm, comforting scent that dripped with a child's innocence. It reminded him of warm, soft, freshly baked bread with blueberry jam smeared on it. Matt hated that his parents had separated them; more than anything he wanted to be with his baby brother who looked up to him so much.

But now isn't the time to worry about TK, Matt thought. _'He's safe at home, dreaming nice dreams and nothing can get to him and disturb him.'_

Matt was wrong, however. He should be worrying about TK, because their next few weeks would very trying ones indeed.

****************To Be Continued! MUAHAH!****************

LOL, I know that wasn't much, but remember, it's a prologue! The next chapter will have actual . . . stuff next time, I promise! *ducks raw vegetables* So anyways, please review and tell me what you think! Comments and constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. And oy, if you flame me without a justifiable reason, I will laugh and mock you. If you don't like it, don't tell me it sucks, tell me _why_ you think it sucks so I can fix it (within reason of course). So, have fun!


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